


Coming Home

by InvincibleRodent



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Non-Inquisitor Lavellan, Post-Canon, Prompt Fill, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 09:40:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7635364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InvincibleRodent/pseuds/InvincibleRodent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dialogue prompt #147; “They’re going to hate me.”</p>
<p>A quick, short piece about Harwen Lavellan's worries over meeting the Montilyet family for the first time. :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> [This is Harwen's face](http://66.media.tumblr.com/ac3f07e322d3adf23be2d6f72fa57e2a/tumblr_oaezznhBWG1s8u7d2o3_1280.png) , in case anyone would like to see him first. :)

“They are going to hate me.”

“That is nonsense, darling.”

“No, Josie, mark my words; there is going to be nothing but several minutes of dead silence, and next thing you know, your father is chasing me out in the marshlands with a torch and a pitchfork.”

Josephine released a long, heavy sigh at that, and gave the fingers intertwined with hers a light, reassuring squeeze. “Nobody is going to hate or judge you, Harwen,” she said, finally turning her eyes from the familiar landscape to the man sitting next to her. His face, that normally smooth, serious, tawny brown face was now etched in a scowl- a severe, insecure expression befitting a lamb to the slaughter. It seemed so out of character, she had to fight the urge to chuckle. “You are meeting my family, not an execution squad.”

She could feel the hand in hers trembling softly, but the one placed loosely on his opposite knee laid smooth on the deep maroon trousers, and looked as out of place there as he most likely felt. In noble clothes, in an ornate carriage, around them rushing past the Antivan countryside bathed in color, Harwen looked as much the stranger as he did in Halamshiral some years ago. Like a visitor, a passing blemish among all the fields glowing orange under the blazing sky.

Dressed in loose-fitting, gathered clothes sewn after Antivan fashion, the wiry, sinewy muscle of his slim body stood out even more, as if he had lost an alarming amount of weight in a short time- and perhaps that was true. With his shoulders slumped, his body almost curled onto itself, as though if he made himself smaller, there wouldn’t be as much of him to reject. Even his voice was much smaller, higher pitched than his usual soft, calm baritone.

“They might as well be an execution squad,” he said, thick brows furrowed, his eyes darting back and forth between her face and the slice of the foreign, sprawling view of her homeland that peeked into the carriage. “I should’ve just stayed in Skyhold.”

She followed his gaze with hers, through the endless quilt of wheat-yellows, rye-greens and the browns of fresh soil. Just a few minutes worth of distance away, where his eyes seemed to be hooked suspiciously, lounged the bay like a big, sparkling footprint. On the shore, the checkered tiles covering the roof of her family’s summer home were squinting up at them like many blinking eyes in the late afternoon sunlight.

The familiar road twisted and curled under the wheels, and with the song of cicadas vibrating in the air and the rapid, rhythmic clacks of the two horses’ hooves on the cobble, for the first time in what felt like -and had been- years, Josephine felt like she was returning home again. But in there, in their shadowed, secure cocoon of red velvet and gold trimmings, the unease was palpable- she could feel it. In the tightness of his posture, the bright yellow glow behind his green eyes dragged out by the dark, in the hold of his fingers on hers; each twitch of his body language screamed reluctance.

“What has you so nervous?” she asked, her brows furrowed in concern and her thumb now rubbing soothing lines on his, which visibly loosened the tension curling in him.

Harwen simply shrugged one awkward shoulder, his free hand gesturing stiffly to his ears. “Emma lath, if putting a saddle on a bronto doesn’t turn it into a horse, wrapping your elf in ruffles won’t turn him into a noble suitor either.”

“ _My_ elf, you said?” The soft curl of her lips around a smile was met only with a tense, lopsided grimace. “You needn’t worry, my love,” she said “I’m certain they are going to adore you just as much as I do.”

“You say that now, but you said the same about Dutchess de Val Montaigne, and she looked at me as if I had kicked her poodle.” He loosed a deep exhale, and tore his gaze from the horizon, turning it onto her with the same, investigatory intensity. “I want them to like me, Josie.”

“And they will.”

“You are very certain of that.”

“Harwen.” She sighed, and reached over, taking both his hands in hers; long fingers stilled by her hold and curled instinctively around hers, his clammy skin warmed by her secure touch. “You are the man I love. The one I chose,” she smiled crookedly “Even if by some off chance my family were to disapprove, it would matter little to me.”

He met her smile with one of his own, mischief finally sneaking back into his gaze. “What is this that I hear, Lady Montilyet?” he teased “Am I to understand that, if push came to shove, you’d run away with the Dalish savage?”

Just as she opened his mouth to answer, the carriage came to a halt with a sudden jerk. The driver’s fist knocked on the outside panel once, twice, three times; his voice starchy and thick with a heavy Antivan accent. “We’ve arrived.”

“So we have,” he rose with a long exhale, and turned, offering her his arm in a theatrical fashion. “My lady?”

And when the pebbles crunched welcoming under two pairs of well-made boots, his hand in hers felt just as steady as ever.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a [a tumblr](http://www.weresquirrel.tumblr.com) , in case anyone is interested! :) Prompts and feedback are always welcome! <3


End file.
